VW might be about to pay US customers $3 billion to end 'Dieselgate'

Herbert Diess, chairman of Volkswagen's passenger cars brand, leaves a presentation at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan, October 28, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino Volkswagen has reached a deal with U.S. authorities to settle the case over its cheating of diesel emissions tests that would involve it paying each affected customer $5,000, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Citing unidentified sources close to the negotiations, Die Welt said the agreement would be presented on Thursday to Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, avoiding a trial that was set to start in the summer.

A U.S. federal judge last month gave Volkswagen and regulators until April 21 to agree on a fix for nearly 600,000 diesel cars on U.S. roads implicated by VW's emissions test-rigging scandal.